Google has made a few interesting tweaks to its web search offering and adds “deep links” directly to subsections of result pages.

Snippets with direct links to relevant content.

Google (NSDQ:GOOG) has always added a short “snippet” containing information on what the relevant web page is about. This text is normally extracted from the page itself. Google “snips” out a paragraph that seems relevant to your query. Alternatively they make use of the Description tag found on the page or a description found in the Open Directory.

Now Google may add “deep” links to relevant sections on the page, making it possible to go directly to the information you are looking for.

The Google Blog gives the query “trans fat” as an example.

One of the results is from the Wikipedia. Google will now add links to sections of the Wikipedia page, sections on sub topics like Chemistry and Nutritional Guidelines.

These links are normally given as a list of keywords below the snippet, although Google may also include a clickable phrase within the snippet itself.

As Search Engine Land points out, Google has been testing both anchor based links (i.e. links in the snippet itself) and snippet based links (links in keywords below snippet) for some time now.

How to get direct deep links for your site

The Google Webmaster Central Blog reports that Google generate such deep links algorithmically, based on page structure, so they may be displayed for any site, including yours.

To improve the chances of getting deep links to your site, Google recommends the following:

“First, ensure that long, multi-topic pages on your site are well-structured and broken into distinct logical sections. Second, ensure that each section has an associated anchor with a descriptive name (i.e., not just “Section 2.1″), and that your page includes a ‘table of contents’ which links to the individual anchors. The new in-snippet links only appear for relevant queries, so you won’t see it on the results all the time — only when we think that a link to a section would be highly useful for a particular query.”

Google adds books to search options panel

In May we told you about Google’s new “Search options feature”.

If you click on the “Show options” link on the result pages (which you find right under the Google logo on the English language versions of Google), Google will add a left hand column to the result page.

The column includes links that will narrow down or refine your search.

Inside Google Books now reports that Google has added Books as an additional filter. Click on “Books” and Google will give you results from the Google Book Search database.

As Google points out:

“This will provide easier access to books and magazines by letting you slice and dice your results with certain characteristics. For example, you can now search for only books or magazines or for only content that you can preview in Google Books.”

Here’s a video that tells you how to use Search options:

Yahoo announces New Yahoo! Search

Yahoo! (NSDQ:YHOO) will abandon its own search engine in favor of Microsoft’s Bing next year (unless the deal is stopped by the US government). That doesn’t stop Yahoo! from improving the search interface, however. Yahoo! does not have to present results in the same way as Bing.

This week Yahoo! announced the new Yahoo! Search.

To tell the truth, not all these features are new. Many of them have been available in beta or for selected users. Nor is Yahoo! any good at explaining what is new and what is not. Still, it seems clear that they are now integrating several features into a more coherent whole.

Here are some of the main features:

• Search Pad. Log in to your Yahoo! account to save search results, take notes and share results with friends.
• Link to the preference page of Seachscan, an already existing service that alerts you to harmful sites (viruses, malware and the like)
• Expanded search snippets with direct links to relevant content on selected web sites and pages. This is a feature very similar to the deep links of Google presented above, as Yahoo! will link to subsections of specific result pages.
• Direct links to authority sites, shopping sites and social sites like Wikipedia, CNET, Amazon, Best Buy and YouTube in the left hand column. The sites that are included depend on your query.
• Alternative search queries in the left hand column that helps you narrow down your search (similar to the query assistance that appears automatically under the search field when you start writing a query)
• Alternative image searches in the left hand column of image search result pages. A search for “Rome Italy” will bring up illustrated links to images searches for “Colosseum,” “Pantheon,” “Trevi Fountain” etc.

See also ResearchBuzz: A Look at the New Yahoo Search

Here’s a interactive map that sums up the new features.